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Friedrich Wilhelm Michael Kalkbrenner (November 2–8, 1785June 10, 1849) was a pianist, composer, piano teacher and piano manufacturer. German by birth, Kalkbrenner studied at the Paris Conservatoire starting at a young age and eventually settled in Paris, where he lived until his death in 1849. For these reasons, many historians refer to Kalkbrenner as being a French composer. At his peak, Kalkbrenner was considered to be the foremost pianist in Europe. When Frédéric Chopin came to Paris, Kalkbrenner suggested that Chopin could benefit by studying in one of Kalkbrenner's schools. It was not until the late 1830s that Kalkbrenner's reputation was surpassed by the likes of Chopin, Sigismond Thalberg and Franz Liszt.〔On September 18, 1831 Chopin wrote: ''I am in very close relations with Kalkbrenner, the 1st pianist in Europe, whom I think you would like.'' (Chopin 1931), p. 152. And on December 12, 1831 Chopin wrote again: ''Through Paer, who is court conductor here, I have met Rossini, Cherubini, Baillot, etc. – also Kalkbrenner. You would not believe how curious I was about Herz, Liszt, Hiller, etc. – "They are all zero beside Kalkbrenner".'' (Chopin 1931), p. 154〕 The only serious rival he had was Johann Nepomuk Hummel. Kalkbrenner was a prolific composer of a multitude of piano works (altogether more than 200), piano concertos, and operas. Author of a famous method of piano playing (1831) which was in print until the late 19th century, he ran in Paris what is sometimes called a ''factory for aspiring virtuosos''〔(Starr 1995), p. 176〕 and taught scores of pupils from as far away as Cuba. His best piano pupils were Marie Pleyel and Camille-Marie Stamaty. Through Stamaty, Kalkbrenner’s piano method was passed on to Louis Moreau Gottschalk and Camille Saint-Saëns. He was one of the few composers who through deft business deals became enormously rich. Chopin dedicated his first piano concerto to him. Kalkbrenner published transcriptions of Beethoven's nine symphonies for solo piano decades before Liszt did the same.〔Liszt took Kalkbrenner’s edition seriously and wrote to his publishers Breitkopf and Härtel (probably in December 1837): ''I thank you much, gentlemen, for the obliging letter that you have written me. Up to the present time I have had none but the most pleasant business relations with Mr. Hofmeister, who has the kindness to publish the greater part of my works in Germany. As I do not know very much of the laws which regulate literary and musical proprietorship in Saxony, I had spoken to him about the Beethoven Symphonies, of which I have undertaken the arrangement, or, more correctly speaking, the pianoforte score. To tell the truth, this work has, nevertheless, cost me some trouble ; whether I am right or wrong, I think it sufficiently different from, not to say superior to, those of the same kind which have hitherto appeared. ''The recent publication of the same Symphonies, arranged by Mr. Kalkbrenner, makes me anxious that mine should not remain any longer in a portfolio.'' I intend also to finger them carefully, which, in addition to the indication of the different instruments (which is important in this kind of work), will most certainly make this edition much more complete.''(Liszt 1894), p. 22. Italics added.〕 He was the first one to introduce long and rapid octave passages in both hands – today so familiar from 19th century piano music - into his piano texture. Today he is not so much remembered because of his music, but because of his alleged vanity.〔This is a judgement probably first uttered by Louis Moreau Gottschalk: ''The perfect elegance of his (Kalkbrenner’s) manners, his cultivated elegance, and his talent gave him great success in society, but his extreme vanity, which had become proverbial, had in time rendered him unsupportable''. (Gottschalk 2006), p. 220. This opinion still reverberated with Schonberg more than 100 years later: ''But Kalkbrenner was a more superficial musician, in addition to being a bourgeois gentilhomme of colossal vanity.'' (Schonberg 1984), p. 118.〕 Kalkbrenner was convinced that, after the death of Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn, he was the only classical composer left, and he never hesitated to let the world know this. Although of humble origins, he had a lifelong aspiration to be an aristocrat and delighted in rubbing shoulders with the nobility in London and Paris.〔Marmontel writes: ''Kalkbrenner, homme d’ailleurs distingue, de belles manières, avait encore une faiblesse, celle de se croire un grand seigneur. L’habitude de frayer avec la noblesse anglaise et française lui fait fait comme une seconde nature ; il en parlait avec la familiarité la plus surprenante.'' Translation: ''Kalkbrenner, who was otherwise a distinguished man of good manners, had one other weakness; this was that he took himself for a great nobleman. His habitude of hobnobbing with English and French aristocracy had for him become second nature. He talked about it with the most astonishing implicitness.'' (Marmontel 1878), p. 105.〕 He is invariably described as a somewhat pompous, formal, overly polite, yet intelligent and business wise extremely shrewd man. He was the target of many anecdotes during his own lifetime and bitingly satirized by the German poet Heinrich Heine.〔Heinrich Heine called him a Bonbon fallen into the mud. (Heine 1893), p. 277〕 There hardly is any other composer who lives on in so many anecdotes and stories as Kalkbrenner. Not much of his huge output has survived, although several pianists have taken some shorter works of his into their repertoire. A new recording〔(Hyperion recording of Kalkbrenner's 1st & 4th Piano Concerto )〕 of two of his piano concertos (No. 1 and No. 4) was released in 2005; an older (and abridged) recording of the piano concerto No. 1 is still available. 2012 saw a new CD release of his second and third piano concertos. ==Biography== 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Friedrich Kalkbrenner」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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